St. Patrick's Day

Today's St. Patrick's Day, and you know what that means!

The Leprechauns.

They show up here, sneak in secretly, mess up a room, throw candy around, and leave a mean note.

Kirsten asked me last night where this tradition started and why. It was in the 80s sometime, but I don't remember. She said she thought everyone had Leprechauns until she was talking about it in college and nobody knew what she was talking about.

That's when she realized this isn't a universal thing. It's just us. That weirded her out a little, but she still likes it.

The hardest part about this isn't the messy room. I can do that--toss the cushions off the couch, empty out a couple drawers, whatever. Or sometimes I just look around for a room that's already messy and throw the candy in there.

The hard part is the mean note. I have no idea what to write this year. One year, this was great--I found a potty training book and opened it up to a picture of a kid on a toilet, and drew an arrow on a piece of paper pointing to it and wrote, "You."

The kids actually gasped when they saw it. "Why do they hate us so much?" No idea. Probably because we're not Irish?



Anyway, today was 65 degrees of beautiful sunshine. I called Dannell to see if they wanted to come for supper because the Leprechauns would be a lot more fun with t.c. here. Everything's pretty much more fun with him involved. Last year he was crazy for those Leprechauns.



They wanted us to meet them at the zoo instead, so we did. It's a small city zoo, old and fancy. They don't have a lot of animals, but it's a pretty park to spend an afternoon at.


In the car on the way, the kids were playing some kind of game where they'd observe something along the road and then holler about it and give demerits. ??? A trash can overflowing? Six demerits! A guy smoking? Six demerits!

We went past a restaurant called Joe's Crab Shack, and Kari hollered, "Who wants a shack with CRABS in it? Ten demerits!" Where did they hear of demerits anyway? They're homeschooled. It's not like we have those. Garfield and Friends, the cartoon. Ahh, should have known.



I was complaining at the zoo because every time we go the animals are all asleep. The monkeys are kicked back, mouths hanging open, snoring. The gorillas were sacked out on their sides, eyes closed. The buffalo were lying down. I mean, GET UP. We drove all the way over here. If I wanted to see an animal asleep, I could stay home and look at Sam.



Well, the lion was not looking too lively, dozing in the sun. We watched him for a few minutes and one of the kids commented that he opened his eyes. Oh yeah, that's exciting. Sigh.

Then a girl lion came over and woke him up and ...ahem... they,ummm... needed privacy. But the kids were sure interested. "What are they doing?" "Do they sleep on top of each other?" Ahhh, not really.

t.c. has a voice that carries for miles and he asked a few loud questions, so Dannell leaned down and whispered something to him, and then he said, "What baby? Where? When can we see the baby?" Oh yeah, let's keep going. They need to be alone.

Sheeze.

We wandered up past the reindeer, and it smelled, you know like a springtime barnyard defrosting. The kids howled about the smell, plugging their noses. "Smells like your diapers used to," I teased them.

"No way!" they yelled back.




The zebras and giraffes were still inside, and the kids wanted to see the baby giraffe. It was stuffy and hot in there. Okay, and the zebra was eating his own poop. I mean, he looks like a healthy animal, nice coat, pleasant shape, not sick looking at all, probably really bored mostly. Eating his own poop. We had a look at that baby giraffe and got the heck out of there.

When we were going up the hill, Dannell said maybe it's better if they're asleep after all.


In the car later, James and Kari and I were talking about the zoo, and James said he thought the zebra was even grosser than the lions. (He tone was all like when you think it can't get any worse...then it does.) I have to agree. Eating poop is grosser than sex.


playing peekaboo with uncle james

Wow, time to get to work on that mean note. Darn. I've got to think of something insulting, but what? Happy St. Patrick's Day. love, Val